In December of 2016, Millan Henegar and Jake Comisar found themselves at the home of Sam Katz. They were both feeling particularly hungry and decided to raid the Katz pantry for whatever kind of treats, snacks, and goodies they could find. According to Katz, they took down about 25 packs of gummies and twelve Gatorades. Katz was absolutely appalled that his friends were abusing his pantry, but then he had an idea. Katz knew that he and his friends would be hanging at other houses in the upcoming days, and he wondered if those pantries would be treated in the same unorthodox way that his was treated. Better yet, he wondered how his pantry stacked up against the numerous other pantries that are scattered around South Charlotte, and thus began the idea of a Pantry Rate.
Katz and his two friends were headed to Hayden Clay’s house later that week, so he texted them to ask if they would like to perform a practice rate of his pantry. In the next two weeks they evaluated both Clay and Sean Caldwell’s pantry. What had started out as a joke quickly turned into one of the most popular Instagram pages in the Greater Charlotte area.
A few weeks ago, I was fortunate to receive an invitation as the first press correspondent to get an inside look at a Pantries of CLT pantry rating process. As the first non-member of the pantry crew to ever observe a pantry rate, I was, of course, nervous. The crew, however, had no reservations barging into the house with bravado. They welcomed the pigs-in-a-blanket snacks that were out on the table for them and then wasted no time getting down to business with the pantry rate.
Pantry connousiers Sam Katz and MIllan Henegar inspect the Lahn household pantry. Photo courtesy of Jack Giardino
I very quickly learned that a pantry rate mostly entails the team going in the pantry and coming out with both their arms and mouths filled with snacks. However, there are a few things that go into the rating of a pantry; for instance, the team usually notes the gummy-to-cookie ratio, as well as the type of wood that the door is made of. Pantry rater Sam Katz says, “Always have a mahogany door, never oak.” Lastly, they do an exercise where they turn off all of the lights in the pantry and close their eyes. Katz says that this allows them to really feel the history of the pantry and allow for the snacks to speak for themselves and tell a story.
“When we are writing in 'the pantry bible,' Jake is the grammar man, Millan provides the beef, and I provide the condiments, we try to keep it funny but also informative.” - Sam Katz
Later that evening, after the pantry crew packed up their supplies and left the house, their pockets filled with stolen goodies, the crew posted their pantry rate on Instagram. They used a picture taken before the write up session of all of us in the pantry posing with different assortments of food. In our sit-down, Katz told me that they always like to hold the food of the pantry up in the picture for a more authentic look. He also told me that they had played around with a few different times and days of the week to post and found that posting between 7:00-7:45pm on any weekend gets them maximum likes.
Comisar, Katz, and Henegar work on their write up review of the Lahn household pantry. Photo courtesy of Jack Giardino.
Any old goon can take a peek at the Pantries of CLT Instagram page and get a pretty good idea of what goes on in there, but I was allowed a real sneak peek into the pantry world when I got to ask a few questions post-rate. I was mostly interested in things like would they expand to different social media platforms? Katz says that Instagram has created a great platform on which to build. He seemed to think that they would mostly stay with what they had, but Katz says that an expansion to Facebook could be an option mostly because he would love to get the mothers of Charlotte as active followers. When asked about how Instagram has helped them grow, Katz couldn’t say enough about the power of social media: “we spent hours going through our own followers and following them on pantries, but eventually the power of laughter helped us to grow, and now we have gone from about four followers to around 900 in about two months.”
By Jack Giardino
A never-before-seen, look into what goes on during a pantry rate, and a looksee into what the future holds for the number one pantry connoisseurs this side of the Mississippi.
When I asked him what the next step was for the pantry crew, the answer was surprising. Katz says that they have been brainstorming an idea where people would have to pay a fee of a few canned goods in order to get a pantry rate, which the crew would donate to Loaves and Fishes. As for the end game, Katz says that Pantries of CLT hopes to be on TV someday, and I have no doubt in my mind that this will happen. According to one father who had his pantry rated, “Those boys have a promising future ahead as long as they trust the process.” So keep your eye out for the pantry mobile zipping around Charlotte, and don’t forget to follow @PantriesofCLT on Instagram.
“. . .we spent hours going through our own followers and following them on pantries, but eventually the power of laughter helped us to grow and now we have gone from about 4 followers to around 900 in about two months.” -Sam Katz
Charger correspondent Jack Giardino meeting up with the Pantry crew. Photo courtesy of Max Lahn.
All the while, they were overwhelmingly adamant that the residents of the home not come into the room so that their writing would be free of owner-influence. On the writing process, Katz said, “When we are writing in 'the pantry bible' Jake is the grammar man, Millan provides the beef, and I provide the condiments; we try to keep it funny but also informative.”
After they finished up in the pantry, the crew found a quiet, closed-off spot. In this case, it happened to be the dining room of the house they were in. Then they set off into about a half an hour of light-hearted argument over what to put in the write up. They mostly spoke about what sort of puns and figures of speech to put in their piece.
A link to the PantriesofCLT instagram page, don't forget to follow!
Pantries of Charlotte, a behind-the-scenes peek
"What had started out as a joke quickly turned into one of the most popular Instagram pages in the Greater Charlotte area."
The Charger, March 2017
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